The Gus and Webby show

North Queensland captain Johnathan Thurston has again raised concerns over a Cowboys conspiracy as his coach pledged to ‘‘walk nude through Pitt Street’’ if Kieran Foran’s try wasn’t an obstruction.

Thurston and coach Paul Green were fuming after the 26-21 loss to the Sea Eagles at Central Coast Stadium on Friday night, with a contentious video refereeing decision involving Kieran Foran costing the Cowboys for the second time in two years.

‘‘I want to talk about that refereeing decision, that is absolutely bewildering,’’ Green said of the try awarded to Foran despite replays showing Jamie Buhrer had obstructed Ray Thompson. ‘‘Someone needs to explain to me what the ruling is because in my opinion they must have changed the rule. Firstly in that passage of play how he ruled six to go – in my opinion that pass [from Brett Stewart] went forward and they’ve ruled six to go.

‘‘Then on the try – if that’s not an obstruction I’ll walk nude through Pitt Street. Someone needs to explain to me whether they’ve changed the obstruction rule because I’m absolutely bewildered how they got it wrong.’’

It was a case of deja vu on Friday night at Central Coast Stadium, with Thurston again left to question the match officials in disbelief of what had just transpired. ‘‘Very much so,’’ Thurston said after he was asked if the ruling was hard to cop given the history surrounding the club and the officials. ‘‘Like I said to Freddy [Fittler], when you’re in this jersey and it goes to a video ref, it’s a lottery.’’

The Cowboys were bundled out of last year’s finals series when Cronulla scored a try on the seventh tackle of a set, with the Queenslanders claiming it was a Sydney conspiracy theory aimed at cruelling the out-of-towners. But Green wouldn’t buy into such suggestions, adamant his side was owed an explanation by the NRL.

‘‘We’ve got to move past that as a club,’’ Green said of the conspiracy theory. ‘‘There’ll be no talking about ‘poor Cowboys, the world is against us’. That was just a poor decision. What’s disappointing for the game is that decisions like that are deciding outcomes, and that’s not good enough.

‘‘They owe us an explanation. What did you think? Did you think it was a try? There wasn’t a bloke at this ground who thought that was a try.

‘‘ It’s just absolutely bewildering. They’ll either come out and say they were wrong, but that doesn’t help us get the two points back, or they’ll justify their decision.’’

Thurston said the on field referees didn’t have an explanation for the decision by the video referees.

‘‘He directly runs at the line and takes him out,’’ Thurston said to referee Gavin Badger after the video referees awarded the try.

‘‘It’s not good enough Badge, it’s not good enough mate.’’

10 comments so far

Look, until they completely eliminate, that players are allowed to run in to holes and 'confuse' the defenders, there will always be controversy.The hole running player cannot just disappear (or picked up by an overhead crane perhaps?), the defenders will always make it look like that they were held up even if the ball was 5 metres away (and could not have reached it anyway) so why don’t change the rule? The defenders are taught to play like drama queens in situations like that. There is no easy solution.The game will be poorer because one less dummy available, but stop this week in/ week out whinging at least.

Commenter

North of the Tweed

Date and time

April 19, 2014, 12:46PM

For sale, my NRL tickets. What a joke ! I cannot explain to my sons how these Ref's are getting it so wrong. As such, there will be no more support from me and my family.Start using the Sin Bin for the Ref's, replace them for poor decisions. Give me a go at reffing one game, I bet I am no worse than your "Professionals".

Commenter

give me a go at reffing

Location

Fed ups ville

Date and time

April 19, 2014, 2:49PM

Mate, rugby league is hard to officiate. If you dont like it then we end up with American Football and its 7 officials. Seven!

The defender needs to bullock his way thru decoy runners then the penalty will be obvious to call. The Cowboys defender last night just walked.

Commenter

jg

Location

Canberra

Date and time

April 19, 2014, 7:33PM

Presumably you are now in search with perfect officiating. Good luck finding that one.

Fact is, you know as well as I do that you will be watching our game.

Commenter

Joe the expat

Location

The Hague

Date and time

April 19, 2014, 9:51PM

I thought it was a try. I also thought that a cowboy player shouldn't have dropped the ball near the end of the game and that the coach should have his defence organisedbetter than it was to allow such an easy try to win the game . There : player error, coach error all not commented on by the losing team . Sick to death of constant whining.

Commenter

Hoot

Date and time

April 19, 2014, 3:19PM

Look at the scoreboard Mr Green. Better start walking.

Commenter

Ian

Date and time

April 19, 2014, 5:41PM

I agree with Ian

Commenter

I agree

Date and time

April 20, 2014, 1:52AM

Please ask Archer to send the two clowns doing the video referrals to an eye specialist immediately...or get them two seeing eye dogs...Bloody disgraceful decision and the Cowboys have every right to feel aggrieved,Imagine the furore if a decision like that went against Manly......

Commenter

Circling Buzzard

Location

Fremantle

Date and time

April 19, 2014, 11:31PM

Get your head out of the sand... Manly were dudded in four games last year and then the grand final too. The press doesn't really care about that.

There was no column space when the NRL admitted in 2005 and 2011 that they incorrectly ruled a try/no try in the last minute to give the Cowboys a 2 point victory on each occasion.

But there was plenty of column space in 2012 to beat up the "hand of Foran". It might have been a legitimate whinge if the Cowboys didn't receive a dodgy try themselves (that caused the official to be dropped). Oh... And Manly still won by 10!

And the sook last year about the Sharks getting one extra tackle? Please... in every game there's a team incorrectly getting full sets of six from the ref missing something. So instead of blaming the refs... they need to learn how to close out a game.

It's never a good media story when a heavyweight team is on the wrong side of a call. But when it's a "pretender" like the Cowboys... it whips up a frenzy.

Commenter

Pricey80

Date and time

April 21, 2014, 10:34PM

Boo hoo. Who cares. If this code had any respect they wouldn't even be playing their game at this sacred time of year. They're a bloody disgrace.

The last thing Australians need to see is another rugby league associate engaging in yet more anti-social behaviour. We see enough of this from the NRL every other week on our streets and in clubs etc.